The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-09-28
HE CLARION.
THE DIVINE PLUMB LINE.
REV. Or. TALMAGE'S SERMON AT
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. !
Straight Up and Down Religion
Wanted-Business Panics Caused by a
Lack of Conndence-Brafn Workers
Need as Much Sympathy as Laborers.
BRooKL1E, Sept. 25.-After the great
congregation had sung the long meter
doxology in the Brooklyn tabernacle this
morning DIR. Talmage expounded the sixth
chapter Of the second epistle to the Corin-
thians, setting forth the importance Of
separation from bad fellowship. and say
ing that man is no better than the com
pany he keeps. Professor Henry Eyre
Brown played an organ solo, Sonata No.
in ID minor, by Guillmant The sub
1ect Of the sermon was "a Straight Up
and Down Religion and t. text was
Amos vii, 8: And the l.. ii unto
me, Amos, what seest thous said.
A plumb line. DIR. Talmage said:
The solid masonry of the world has 10
me a fascination. Walk about some of
the triunphal arches and the cathedrals,
four on six hundred years old, and see
them stand as erect as when they were
builded; walls Of great height for CEN
turtles, not bending a quarter Of an inch
this way or that. So greatly honored
were the masons who builded these walls
that they were free from taxation and
called 'free' masons. The trowel gets
most of the credit for these buildings, and
its clear ringing on stone and brick has
ounded across the ages. But there is
another implement Of Just as much i'm
portance as the trowel, and my text rec
ognizes II. Bricklayers and stone masons
and carpenters, in the building Of walls,
use an instrument made Of a cord, at the
end OF which a lump of lead is fastened
They drop it over the side of the wall
and, as the plummet naturally seeks the
center Of gravity in the earth, the work
man discovers where the wall recedes
and where it bulges out and just what is
the perpendicular Our text represents
God as standing on the wall Of character,
which the IsraeItes had built, and in that
way measuring it. "And the Lord said
unto me, AmQs, what seest thou? and l
said, A plumb line. "
What the world wants is straight up
and down religion. Much of the so called
piety Of the day bends this way and that,
10 suit the times. 1t is horizontal with a
have all been building a wall Of charac-
Ter, and it is glalingly imperfect and
needs reconstruction. How shall it be
brought into the perpendicular? Only by
1ivine measurement. "And the Lord
said to me, Amos, what seest thou? and
said, A plumb line"
The whole tendency of the times is to
make US act by the standard of what
others do. If they play cards, we play
cards. If they dance, we dance. If
hey read certain styles of books, we read
them. We throw over the wall of our
character the tangled plumb line of other
lives and reject the infallibe test which
Amos saw. The question for me should
not be what you think is right, but what
God thinks is right. This perpetual ref
erence to the behavior of others, as
though it decided anything but human
fallIbility, il n mistake as wide as the
world. There are $1,000 plumb lines in
use, but only one il true and exact, and
that is the line Of Cons eternal right.
There is a mighty attempt being made to
reconstruct and fix up the Ten Command
mcnts. To many they seem too rigid.
The tower Of Pisa leans over about thirt-
cen feet from the perpendicular, and peo-
pie go thousands of miles to see its grace
full inclination, and by extra braces and
various architectural contrivances it is
kept leaning from century TO century.
Why not have the ten granite blocks of
Sinai set a little aslant! Why not have
the pillar of truth a leaning tower? Why
Is not an ellipse as good as a square? Why
Is not an oblique as good as straight up
and down? Ny friends, we must have a
standard; shall it be Gods or mans?
The divine plumb line needs to be
thrown over all merchandise. Thousands
of years ago solomon discovered the ten
dency of buyers to depreciate goods. He
saw man beating down an article lower
and lower, and saying it was not worth
The price asked, and when he had pur-
chased at the lowest price he told every
body what n sharp bargain he had struck,
and how lac had outwitted the merchant
Proverbs xx, IA: lit is naught, it is
naught, saith the buyer; but when he is
gone his way, then he boasteth. SO ut
terly asSew is society in this matter that
you seldom find seller asking the price
that he expects to get. He puts ON a
higher value than he proposes tn receive,
knowing that Inc will have to drop. And
il he wants fifty, he asks seventy-five.
And If he wants 1000 he asks $780,
at is naught, saith the buyer. 1.-The
fabric is detective; the style of goods is
poor; | can get elsewhere a better article
at n smaller price. 1t is out of fashion;
it is damaged: it will fade; it will not
wear well. After while the mer-
chant, from over persuasion or desire to
dispose of that particular stock of goods,
En nf
and the purchaser goes home with light
step and calls into his private Office his
confidential friends, and chuckles while
he tells how that for half price he got the
goods In other words he lies, and was
proud of il. Nothing would make times
as good and the earning of a livelihood
so easy as the universal adoption of the
law of right. Suspicion strikes through
all bargain making Men who sell know
not whether they will ever get the
money. Purchasers know not whether
the goods'shipped will be according to the
sample. And what, with the large mum.
Der of clerks who are making false en-.
tries and then absconding to Canada, and
the explosion of firms that fail for mil
lions of dollars, honest men are at Their
wits end to make a living. He who
cN<tiiuS up slliitu All TIC tDfeSSuTt ana uOts
right is accomplishing something towards
the establishment of a high commercial
prosperity. | have deep sympathy for
the laboring classes who toll with hand
and foot. But we must not forget the
business men who, without any complaint
or hammered professions through the
street are enduring stress Of
circumstances terrific. The fortunat,
people Of today are those who are
receiving daily wages or regular salaries
And the men most to be pitied are thos,
who conduct business while prices are
falling. END yet try 10 pay their clerk.
and cmiloves. and are in such fearful
straits that they would quit business to-
morrow If it were not for the wreck and
ruin Of Others. When people tell me at
what ruinously low price they purchased
an article, il gives me more dismay than
satisfaction. l know it means the bank
ruPtcy and dedication of men in many
departments. The men who toll with
the brain need full rs much sympathy as
these who toll with the hands. All bust
ness life is struck through with suspicion,
and panics are only the result of want of
confidence.
The pressure to do wrong is all the
stronger from the fact that il. our day
the large business houses are swallowing
up the smaller, the whales dining on blue
fish and minnows. The large houses
undersell the small ones because they can
afford 1t. They can afford to make
nothing, or actually lose, ON some STYLES
OF goods, assured they can make it up on
others. So, great dry goods house goes
outside OF its regular line and sells books
at cost or less than cost, and that swamps
the booksellers; or, the dry goods house
sells bric-a-brac at lowest figure, that
swamps the small dealer in bric-a-brac.
And the same thing goes ON in other